Community Forums

vman60 · 07-03-2010, 05:02 PM

Hi everyone. I would like to thank those of you that have come to my aid and answering my tough questions. Being a newbie in the RV world makes me feel useless and at the mercy of good hearted people like yourselves to help me out.
I do how ever need to empose on you yet another question if you all would not mind.
My 1988 Fleetwood has a Kohler generator model #7cmz21-rv. It has 168 hours on it. Right now I am trying to figure out if the main house battery which is huge model and make of this monster is a performance battery and #'s are swng 8D. Now that battery is the size of at least 3 car batteries. It is dead. I hooked up jumper cables from my truck and straight this house battery and let it charge like this for about 15 min. then I started the generator and disconnected the cables in hopes that it would charge that battery. Well the generator ran for about 5 min and died. I in turn tried to restart the generator and to no prevail was nothing. So I re hooked the jumper cables and repeated the process. Again it started but as before afer 5 minutes died again. Can anyone tell me is the generator dying because the house battery is that dead and need to replace or is it because there is also something now wrong with the generator. Also I noticed as of late on my Bounder that when I start it and let it run for a minute, the choke light on the dash lights up. It also runs for a little while and then dies while in idle. Are any of these problems related? I bought this a year ago and have yet to take it anywhere. I have started this coach a few times and thats it. Thanks to all of you for your wisdom and understanding for being a newbie. I just want to enjoy what all of you already do. Thanks again if you can help.

skipwil · 07-03-2010, 06:05 PM

I once owned an '88 F/W limited that was gas and when the gas tank got to about 1/3 full the generator would not run. Is your tank fuller than that? Just a thought... Most generators are magneto ignition. My power cord also had to plug into a receptacle in the bay for the coach to have any generator power.
Good luck...

vman60 · 07-03-2010, 06:20 PM

No I never thought of that. It is gas a 454 on a chevy chassis. Thanks for the hint.

Gary RVRoamer · 07-04-2010, 09:39 AM

The generator does need 12v power to run - it powers the fuel pump even though the ignition may be via magneto. Often, though, the genset runs from the chassis battery rather than the house battery. That's so you can start it even if you run the house battery dead (as in this case).

Can you put a regular battery charger on that big 8D battery? It's just a 12v on steroids and will eventually charge up with even a 10A charger hooked to it.

Elkhartjim · 07-04-2010, 09:48 AM

Clean all the connections. Mine did exactly the same thing the other day. I cleaned the connections and I haven't had a problem since.

vman60 · 07-04-2010, 02:32 PM

Right now no. There is no way to charge it because I have it sitting in a storage facility. I just recently purchased a home with 5k acres and was trying to get it moved out here to my new home. As far as connections there are alot of these liitle metal connectors connected to the battery post. They are all clean. I have tried to just lift the battery out but it sits on a bracket mounted to the frame and it weighs in at around 132 pds. With my year of bounder I have 2 hoods. and it will take 2 of me to reach down and pull this monster through the passenger side hood. It is acid filled so the electralites might be low. But I was really trying to avoid pulling that beast out. I realize the battery frame has a couple of bolts and a good floor jack could lift the battery, but the bolts are rusty and I don"t want to have maybe to do welding. If I could at least get the coach itself running long enough to make it out here to my home, I could charge it. But its 80 miles away.

Elkhartjim · 07-04-2010, 03:27 PM

My connections sure "looked" clean too.

vman60 · 07-05-2010, 05:58 AM

The post on both batteries are clean and connections are good. Does the generator run off the start battery or the house battery? I thought it ran off the house battery? To me it would make more sense so that it could charge that battery as its running. I was thinking that if I jumped the house battery and got the generator running, it would charge up the house battery. Unfortunately it only runs for about 5 minutes and shuts off. That doesn"t make sense to me, unless it needs a constant 12v to keep running and then charges the battery in the process. I was also thinking that the choke light on the dash that is lighting up might also have something to do with the generator. Or its the choke for the carberator for the 454 engine that needs to be looked at. Either way the engine or generator will run for more that 5 minutes before they both shut down.

Elkhartjim · 07-05-2010, 06:18 AM

I understand we are talking apples and oranges since my Bounder is an 08 diesel but...

Two weeks ago I tried to start my genset...nothing. By using the aux start switch I could start it. I use the house batteries for starting the genset.

The genset started, I started the engine and all was well until we stopped some miles down the road. I killed the engine and the genset ran for several minutes and then died. Tried to start and nothing. Used the aux switch and it started.

I killed the genset. Went to the house batteries, loosened each connection and wiggled the connections, tightened the connections and never had another problem. I did disassemble each connection and thoroughly clean and spray the next morning.

That was two weeks ago and I've not had a problem since...and I've added almost 20 hours of run time on the genset.

I would at least give this a try before getting a hernia trying to remove those beast.

vman60 · 07-05-2010, 06:36 AM

I did disconnect both the engine start battery and this monster house battery and cleaned each terminal and wire connector. Still the problem persist. I'm not so much mechaicaly inclined, basic knowlege at best. I'm in the funeral buissiness. To me I'm ready to cremate the house battery lol. I will probably just buy a new house battery, they range from $200 to $600. Its a beautiful well cared for home with only 36k miles on it, I just wished I would of thought to buy a battery tender for it and pulled it out last fall. I hope that's all that's wrong with that part of my problem.

vman60 · 07-06-2010, 09:00 AM

I realize the newer coaches have a much smaller house battery than mine, but my generator does not run off the engine start battery. It does run off the big house battery. I did most of my weekend trying to narrow down the problem. All in all because of the coach"s location and the size and weight of this battery plus age, I might as well opt for a new house battery.